What is "whostmgr2 - top ./top"? - Load/CPU randomly high then low again?

[olafadmin]

Hello I am having general errors I was hoping to get help with. My forum keeps having high load averages which cause the forum to go offline, nothing has been updated or changed recently and I noticed this started when we had a huge influx of over 3300 users online. Since though users are back down to a normal 300 ish at one time. What I am noticing as possibly off are the following:

First I am having 7% + cpu use from - whostmgr2 - top ./top
does anyone know what this is for?

Also, I am having a my sql error :

/usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/ --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --log-error=/var/lib/mysql/server.nameremoved.com.err --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/server.nameremoved.com.pid

After running: ls -lh /var/lib/mysql/*.err

I get the following:

-rw-rw---- 1 mysql mysql 6.3K Oct 28 2009 /var/lib/mysql/nd11447.netdepot.com.err
-rw-rw---- 1 mysql mysql 95K Aug 16 21:41 /var/lib/mysql/server.fnameremoved.com.err
root@server [/home/admin]#

*forum name has been replaced with nameremoved.com *


other invo:
Kernel version 2.6.18-164.el5
cPanel Version 11.25.0-CURRENT
MySQL version 5.1.40
Apache version 2.2.14
PHP version 5.2.11

Im not too great with linux and it is what is used so please bare with me.

here is mysqladmin proc list:

root@server [/home/admin]# mysqladmin processlist
+-------+----------------+-----------+--------------+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| Id | User | Host | db | Command | Time | State | Info |
+-------+----------------+-----------+--------------+---------+------+-------+------------------+
| 24426 | eximstats | localhost | eximstats | Sleep | 8 | | |
| 24506 | olafnd_olafsql | localhost | olafnd_forum | Sleep | 1 | | |
| 24510 | root | localhost | | Query | 0 | | show processlist |
+-------+----------------+-----------+--------------+---------+------+-------+------------------+
root@server [/home/admin]#

[cPanelDon]

First I am having 7% + cpu use from - whostmgr2 - top ./top
does anyone know what this is for?

The quoted entry is normal to see when you are monitoring processes and CPU usage via WHM:

• WHM: Main >> System Health >> Show Current CPU Usage (Process Manager)

You may also run "top" via CLI/SSH access using a command like one of the following examples:

# top
# top -c

Please be aware that there will always be some CPU usage for the program you decide to use for monitoring purposes; without using your CPU the monitoring program could not function. It is normal for a running process to utilize your system resources, such as CPU and RAM, but depending on the application the amount of resources usage involved may be very minimal or negligible and, to reiterate, may be normal, such as what you noticed from the low CPU usage required to run "top" via WHM or CLI/SSH.

[olafadmin]

I do monitor via WHM so I am glad that I now know it is normal, It is odd though because it shows a lot of cpu usage sometimes.

Here is the info you asked for:

Top

top - 04:53:45 up 2 days, 5:47, 1 user, load average: 4.67, 3.29, 1.75
Tasks: 216 total, 1 running, 215 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.3%us, 0.6%sy, 1.6%ni, 89.6%id, 5.0%wa, 2.3%hi, 0.6%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 8168584k total, 5672036k used, 2496548k free, 664388k buffers
Swap: 4192924k total, 0k used, 4192924k free, 3850664k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
17424 nobody 19 4 211m 80m 10m S 2.0 1.0 0:00.31 /usr/local/apache/b
19687 nobody 20 4 203m 70m 8072 S 2.0 0.9 0:00.09 /usr/local/apache/b
20578 nobody 19 4 205m 72m 7904 S 2.0 0.9 0:00.09 /usr/local/apache/b
21254 root 15 0 12736 1072 716 R 2.0 0.0 0:00.01 top -c
1 root 15 0 10348 696 588 S 0.0 0.0 0:02.29 init [3]
2 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:01.06 [migration/0]
3 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 [ksoftirqd/0]
4 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 [watchdog/0]
5 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:11.09 [migration/1]
6 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 [ksoftirqd/1]
7 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 [watchdog/1]
8 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.12 [migration/2]
9 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 [ksoftirqd/2]
10 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 [watchdog/2]
11 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.14 [migration/3]
12 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.02 [ksoftirqd/3]
13 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 [watchdog/3]

Please let me know any other info you need.

[cPanelDon]

I do monitor via WHM so I am glad that I now know it is normal, It is odd though because it shows a lot of cpu usage sometimes.

Here is the info you asked for:

Top

Please let me know any other info you need.

The commands are only examples of what you may use as an alternative to WHM for process monitoring; however, after reviewing what you have provided I do not see any significantly high CPU load.

[olafadmin]

my load is usually .06 or lower. When the load gets above 4 the forum gets unstable and goes down for members and they are unable to post. if I change my UNIX settings and up the load average on the forum itself, the forum will crash and I will have to manually reset apache.

Im not sure why it is doing this. I ran the error log for my sql due to an error I was receiving which I posted above.

I dont see any errors in top either , but if there are no errors why is the forum so unstable? I continue to get this error in my cpu usage details:

/usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/ --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --log-error=/var/lib/mysql/server.forum.com.err --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/server.forum.com.pid

[cPanelJared]

What you listed is not an error. It is simply a process list showing the arguments that were passed to the process when it was started:

/usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/ --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --log-error=/var/lib/mysql/server.forum.com.err --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/server.forum.com.pid

if I change my UNIX settings and up the load average on the forum itself

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "change my UNIX settings?" What settings did you change, exactly? What files did you edit? Did you restart any services after making the changes?

[olafadmin]

I am sorry for not being more clear. On my forum admincp, there is a configure server tab. There is a spot to limit system load. It says,

Limit system load:
If the system’s 1-minute load average exceeds this value the board will automatically go offline. A value of 1.0 equals ~100% utilisation of one processor. This only functions on UNIX based servers and where this information is accessible. The value here resets itself to 0 if phpBB was unable to get the load limit.

So it has been set to 5.5 so that when load jumps up the forum will go offline.

I just really have no idea what is causing load to go up like it is though, we haven't ever had this issue before. A simple restart of apache gets the forum back online. If anything Ive posted here looks normal to you, then I don't know where to go from here. Something must be causing the forum load to go up. Usually when the load is high though, copy on any one process is 1% or less.

[olafadmin]

thanks for the help im getting =)

[cPanelDon]

forum load just jumped up to 17% then dropped within 1 minute down to 7% with no other processes running other than what is shown here. I tried to get a top with it at 17% but it had dropped by the time I was able to get putty up and running. Any reason for this?

top - 22:29:54 up 2 days, 23:23,  1 user,  load average: 6.98, 4.74, 2.47
Tasks: 283 total,   2 running, 280 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu(s):  2.3%us,  1.4%sy,  1.8%ni, 93.0%id,  0.7%wa,  0.3%hi,  0.4%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   8168584k total,  6336720k used,  1831864k free,   726572k buffers
Swap:  4192924k total,        0k used,  4192924k free,  4179284k cached

If you can obtain a snapshot of system activity during the high load that may help to narrow your investigation.

Is the system running in a virtual environment? You may use the following command to help determine this:

# cat /var/cpanel/envtype && echo

Also can someone tell me what this is below:

/bin/bash /usr/local/prm/prm -s

The entry appears similar to Process Resource Monitor (PRM); this is third-party software that someone would have had to manually install on the system. Reference: http://www.rfxn.com/projects/process-resource-monitor/

I recommend hiring an experienced server administrator to assist with debugging the stability and performance difficulty; ultimately, the only way to maintain servers is to ensure they are monitored by experienced system administration personnel. You may find third-party offers or post a job offer in the following (advertising) forums area: Server Management and Server Repair - cPanel Forums

[olafadmin]

forum load just jumped up to 17% then dropped within 1 minute down to 7% with no other processes running other than what is shown here. I tried to get a top with it at 17% but it had dropped by the time I was able to get putty up and running. Any reason for this? I seem to be having instability issues due to load, and I just cannot pinpoint any real issue. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

top - 22:29:54 up 2 days, 23:23,  1 user,  load average: 6.98, 4.74, 2.47
Tasks: 283 total,   2 running, 280 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie
Cpu(s):  2.3%us,  1.4%sy,  1.8%ni, 93.0%id,  0.7%wa,  0.3%hi,  0.4%si,  0.0%st
Mem:   8168584k total,  6336720k used,  1831864k free,   726572k buffers
Swap:  4192924k total,        0k used,  4192924k free,  4179284k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
 9467 nobody    19   4  157m  25m 8852 S  3.0  0.3   0:00.10 httpd
 9488 nobody    19   4  155m  24m 8176 S  2.3  0.3   0:00.07 httpd
 2706 root      18   0  110m  43m 1744 S  1.7  0.5   0:00.20 spamd
10900 mysql     21   6  325m  78m 4324 S  1.3  1.0  14:01.12 mysqld
 9454 nobody    19   4  152m  18m 7820 S  1.0  0.2   0:00.07 httpd
9464 nobody    19   4  151m  18m 7820 S  0.7  0.2   0:00.04 httpd
 9594 root      18   0 54284  10m 1756 S  0.7  0.1   0:00.02 tailwatchd
 1762 root      10  -5     0    0    0 S  0.3  0.0   0:42.86 kjournald
 3466 nobody    19   4  157m  29m  12m S  0.3  0.4   0:00.53 httpd
 3817 nobody    19   4  151m  19m 9436 S  0.3  0.2   0:00.09 httpd
 7178 root      18   0  124m  23m 1720 S  0.3  0.3   0:45.60 lfd
 9297 nobody    19   4  148m  14m 4808 S  0.3  0.2   0:00.03 httpd
 9418 nobody    19   4  157m  25m 8872 S  0.3  0.3   0:00.11 httpd
 9506 root      15   0     0    0    0 S  0.3  0.0   0:00.02 pdflush
 9593 root      15   0 12872 1224  800 R  0.3  0.0   0:00.02 top
 9607 root      20   0 28468 3412 1440 R  0.3  0.0   0:00.01 restartsrv_mysq
    1 root      15   0 10348  696  588 S  0.0  0.0   0:02.38 init

Also can someone tell me what this is below, I saw it for the first time in cpu usage taking 19%.:

/bin/bash /usr/local/prm/prm -s

[olafadmin]

im so sorry I just posted a new thread regarding load issues as to not confuse, but I see you now have replied. My apologies for double posting. I was just trying to keep issues separate. Thank you so much!

[cPanelDon]

im so sorry I just posted a new thread regarding load issues as to not confuse, but I see you now have replied. My apologies for double posting. I was just trying to keep issues separate. Thank you so much!

It's no problem; I have merged your two threads and revised the title in attempt to cover the general topic of your inquiry.